TONY Mowbray believes West Bromwich Albion are still on course for survival and must take heart from their attributes – not become disillusioned by their league position.

The Baggies are bottom of the table after losing five of their last six games, three of which came against Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea.

Albion are now preparing for a run of games against teams who are expected to be involved in the survival shake-up at the end of the season, starting with this weekend’s game at Stoke.

“When I have a look at it so far there are not many occasions, if I was predicting the season at the start, that I would give us many more points than we’ve actually got,” Mowbray said.

“Over the course of the season I’m pretty sure I would predict us with enough points to make sure we stay safe. For me there is only Hull City at home where I would have hoped to have got more from the game than we did.

“We were disappointed to only take a point off Blackburn at

home but there are not too many occasions where you would say we were poor in that game and we didn’t do ourselves justice.

“We’ll have a much clearer gauge over the next six weeks.

“If we’re sitting here in six weeks saying we lost here and there, I’ll be disappointed. Whereas, as I sit here today, I still don’t feel too disappointed because I feel there aren’t too many games that we’ve let slip away. We’re doing okay.” Mowbray is hoping his players have taken on board their lessons from the most recent games.

“I’m hoping they’ve learned we’re a pretty good side and that in all those games we competed for long spells,” he added.

“I won’t change my principles. As a club, if you’re ever going to be a top team you have to be able to play in a certain manner, have players who can manipulate the ball, who understand the game, the flow of a game.

“The bigger picture is trying to put the foundations down for a club that is successful in terms of winning in the long term. Sometimes these plans can be perceived to hit the rocks.

“You have to look beyond the short-termism and try to take the club in the right direction by looking at the bigger picture.”